Today, the UK Guardian website offered an article titled “It’s only wrong when YOU do it!” The subject of this article by Dean Burnett is hypocrisy.

I had no problem with its start “… In these times of political turmoil, aggressive online discourse, post-truth society and lord knows what else, one thing is hard to deny: there’s a lot of hypocrisy flying around.”

It more or less ends with “… But what if you just said you do these things, but didn’t? You get all the benefits of people thinking you’re a good and capable person, but you don’t have to practice any restraint. It’s win-win. … There are some positives though. Some studies show that, when called out on hypocrisy, people can end up more dedicated to the beliefs and practices they only claimed to adhere to previously. So don’t be afraid to point out hypocrisy when you see it, you might be doing some good overall.”

What is not addressed in the aticle is what has very recently been illustrated. Hypocrisy has big rewards. Look at the Lump and where he ended up: president-elect. Anybody going to call him out on hypocrisy, fake promisses and worse?

Take another one: Blundering Boris. During the Brexit campaign he was caught promoting lies about the EU. Where did it land him? His hypocrisy, lies, whatever else, got him a plummy job. Less than 48 hours ago, Dijsselbloem again stressed the promisses BB made and continues to sell to the British public simply do no exist. What is happening to BB? Well, nothing of course.

Hypocrisy, foisting outright lies upon the public, fraud and illegally grabbing land, groping or sexually intimidating women and similar appaling behaviour – it is politicians like Lump (sorry, Trump of course) and Theresa May and Boris Johnson who show that such behaviour is rewarded – instead of being appropriately dealt with, condemned, leading to removal from office.

Cleaning up such acts and behaviour among politicials and leaders would perhaps help restore some believe in democracy. As things now stand, the public has plenty examples from politicians and world leaders showing bad behaviour and hypocrisy bring rich rewards.